Changing the Tides
by Kasuke.Hagase
Summary: Is the darkness of death congruent to the darkness in a womb? It sure wouldn't hurt to think so. Rebirth OC.


**Changing the Tides: Chapter 1**

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**Darkness is only the absence of light. Nothing more. Nothing less.**

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Uchiha Hikari smiled down at her daughter's face, reaching and gently rubbing a finger against the infant's cheek. Her smile broadened when her daughter wrapped a small hand around her finger.

"Seikatsu-chan." She murmured, lowering her face and brushing her lips against the baby's forehead. Seikatsu reaching out and grabbed Hikari's long hair.

Continuing to gurgle, she also blew the occasional raspberry. Her mother cooed at her, tickling her belly, enticing squeals from the month-old girl. When Hikari finished tickling her, she brushed the hair out of Seikatsu's face.

Seikatsu gurgled quietly, but the sound stopped abruptly at the sight of Hikari loosening her _obi_ and pulling open the top of her casual yukata. Hikari didn't pay it much mind, only glancing at Seikatsu's smiling face as she lifted her child to her breast, humming.

She didn't notice that the smile on her daughter's face was tight; forced. Nor did she see the annoyance flash across Seikatsu's face.

"My lively child, bring honor to your father's name, and to your family's name."

Minutes later, she pulled back.

The flash of disgust that crossed Seikatsu's face lasted for a moment, and then it was all wide-eyed smiles and gurgles. She reached out for the raven-colored hair on her mother's head and pulled.

Hikari winced. "Seika-chan, it's not nice to pull on people's hair." She admonished, gently pulling her hair back out of Seikatsu's hands. Seikatsu sneaked out a blank face, before glancing around the room, gurgling quietly.

She made a show of yawning and blinking blearily, using tiny fists to rub her wet eyes. A small smile emerged when the sound of Hikari squealing quietly made it's way to her ears.

"Are you tired, Seika-chan?"

She closed her eyes slowly, allowing her breathing to be slow and deep. In a matter of seconds she felt herself lowered onto the soft mattress of her crib, and a second later, a thin sheet placed half way up her chest.

She breathed quietly and waited, listening.

At the sound of the Shoji door quietly sliding closed, her coal-black eyes snapped open and flickered around the room.

Then her eyes faced the ceiling and though her face was blank, her bright eyes were calculating. Glancing at the blurry foreign characters at the sides of her crib, she frowned.

Again.

Just as she'd been doing at the sight of them for the past week.

Her senses her muffled. That, she realized early in the game. Her hearing was a bit dull, and it was hard to discern what these people were saying. Her vision was blurry, although recently it seemed to be clearing up. She fumbled with her hands, and her sense of smell was weak.

The only thing that seemed to be working normally was her sense of taste, and the annoying part was the fact that she'd trade it for any of the others. The milk that she was forced to take every other hour tasted disgusting.

Glaring at her hands, she let them drop and went limp at the sound of the Shoji door reopening. Her eyes fluttered closed and her breaths became deep once again.

Quiet footsteps padded over to her crib. Two pairs.

"Is this her?" A male voice sounded quietly.

"Yeah," Hikari's quiet squeals were easily recognizable, "I had her last month."

"Why didn't I hear of it? I was only gone for 6 months."

"I was keeping it a secret and planned to surprise you all when it started to show. But you had to go on the reconnaissance mission and- "

"I'm not mad at you." He interrupted her.

"Ah." Seikatsu felt her mother gently brush her hair out of her face. "She doesn't cry much. She giggles a lot and I'm sure she gets upset when it's feeding time-"

The man snorted.

"-but she doesn't cry. Even when she's needs to eat. She only does it when I need to change her diaper."

"Really?" He sounded curious.

"Yes, but she immediately stops afterwards."

"Hn."

Seikatsu turned her face the other way to make her fake-sleep look more realistic.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Hikari asked.

The man hummed. A few long moments passed, and Hikari felt herself slowly drifting into a real sleep. "But that's not why I came."

"Oh? Kagami-san?"

"Concerning my brother, your husband, I've come to offer my condolences.."

Their voices fell faded into nothing, and the meaning of their Japanese words were lost on Seikatsu as she fell asleep.

**.:X~X:.**

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. As the seventh month reached it's mark, Seikatsu decided that it was about time she stood.

Hikari had made a point of getting her to crawl two months back, though Seikatsu would have preferred being carried to wherever she pointed. She'd been dreading the day where Hikari would put her down and never pick her up again.

Knowing that she was out of practice, Seikatsu started by pushing back on her hands and falling into a low crouch. She used her arms to balance herself, before trying to straighten out her legs.

After landing on her butt, she pouted for a few moments.

Sighing, she changed tactics and crawled over to the low table, where she planted her hands.

Her legs wobbled as she struggled to stand, and it took her a few seconds to catch her balance once she was up. Taking a two incredibly unstable steps, she smiled widely down at her feet, ecstatic that they were finally working again.

Then, Hikari walked into the room, and in a proud effort to impress the woman, she tried to break into a sprint. The moment her foot left the floor she slipped and fell, erupting into tears at the pain in her chest and stomach from colliding so abruptly with the wooden floor.

"Seikatsu-chan!" Hikaru rushed to her side and picked her up, cradling her like the baby she was and rocking her a few times. "So reckless." She mumbled.

Seikatsu hiccuped, looking at the blurry figure of her mother through watery eyes.

"Come, I'll help you." Hikari offered, supporting Seikatsu with her hands. She placed her daughter a foot away, and then gently held Seikatsu's hands using only two fingers and a thumb, holding her up.

"Seika-chan, walk." She said. Seikatsu didn't understand the word, as it had never been used around her before, or at least not in context. But she knew context clues when she saw them and took a wobbly step forward.

Hikari smiled, slowly drawing her hands closer, with Seikatsu taking steps to match. By the time Seikatsu was an inch away, she let her body go limp and fell onto her mother with a hug, squealing in delight.

Hikari hugged her back, lowering her face into Seikatsu's hair and mumbling, "That's my girl."

Seikatsu let out more squealish giggles when her mother tickled her sides. It was the most ticklish place on all of her and so she squirmed, laughing and trying to get away from her mother's hold.

"Seika-chan, I'm gonna get you!" Hikaru taunted, slowly chasing Seikatsu. She was purposely going agonizingly slow as Seikatsu tried to quickly wobble away, stumbling and sometimes speed-crawling away to gain ground before she shakily stood back up again.

Hikari raised brows at that, before glancing at the clock while standing and reaching forward to pluck her toddler off of the floor. "Seika-chan, hush, you need to take a nap while I shop for groceries." She hushed.

Seikatsu looked at her for a few moments, understanding very little of the Japanese that was spoken, but the familiar words '_nap_' and '_groceries_' rung bells, and she caught the gist of what was being said.

She obliged, clutching her mother's white shirt and burying her face into the crook of Hikari's neck as she was carried to her crib. Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed at the sight of a green flak-jacket, hung in the open closet. _Hm?_

**.:X~X:.**

More months passed and soon Seikatsu was 10 months old, complete with terrible pains in her gums and constant crying.

Hikari was frantic, buying teething toys from shops and using hope-remedies learnt from other women but nothing was working. Seikatsu would still try shattering her eardrums with piercing shrieks and start sobbing randomly. There were hardly five-hour intervals between it, and her mother longed for sleep.

Hikari had long since stopped breastfeeding her and moved onto formula and baby food since Seikatsu was intent on being so brutal.

It'd been like that for two weeks before Kagami took notice, it being the subject of gossip among the Uchiha, and decided to visit.

It'd been months since he last visited his in-law and her daughter.

He barely knocked twice before the door was hastily pulled open, revealing a flustered, wide-eyed Hikari. "Kagami-san, help! She won't stop!"

"Ah, I just came to see-"

A childish scream cut him off, followed by the sobs of a wailing 10 month old.

Hikari dragged Kagami into the house by the arm, hurriedly running into Seikatsu's room, and seeing her daughter sobbing on the floor, she turned back to Kagami. "What do I do?!"

"I-" He cut himself short, finally catching sight of her hair. A snort left him.

"Stop that!" She yelled, tightening her grip on his arm, "What do I _do_?"

"I don't know, I don't have a child." He gently pried her hands off of his arm, "I only wanted to see what was going on."

"Kaga-"

"Buy her a pacifier."

Hikari blinking, "Wha- I mean, excuse me?"

Kagami raised an eyebrow at Seikatsu, who'd stopped sobbing and was now whining as she rolled around on the floor. She didn't want to ruin her teeth by sucking on her thumb.

"It's called a pacifier for a reason, Hikari-san." He said.

Hikari hummed. "Thank you." She smiled, walking up to Seikatsu and picking the child up.

Seikatsu watched the affair with watery eyes, whimpering as the pain came back. _Why aren't they helping me?! I'm in pain!_

She squeaked at the feeling of pain shooting from one jaw to the other. Barely focusing on the strange man, she moved her hands to her chin and tried to rub some of the pain away, her head resting in the crook of Hikari's neck.

Enraptured in relieving the pain, she didn't notice the look that Kagami shot her.

Hikari did. "Is there a problem, Kagami-san?" She politely asked.

Seikatsu hardly understood a word being said, but she knew that _Kagami_ was a Japanese name. She'd figured out that she was in a Japanese place months ago, so there were bound to be a few Kagamis around.

"No. Your daughter is very intelligent." He complimented, observing the toddler.

Recognizing the word 'daughter', Seikatsu turned to look at him. He raised an eyebrow at her steady gaze.

Realizing her mistake, the younger Uchiha blew a raspberry at him, overcoming a bout of pain as she grinned a gummy smile.

"She is." Hikari agreed. "Can you watch her, please, Kagami-san? I want to rush out to the shop and buy-"

"Ah, it won't be a problem." He nodded in understanding, taking Seikatsu from Hikari's arms, despite the younger girl struggling.

Hikari smiled apologetically, before nodding her head gratefully and running out.

"Hm," Kagami's eyes followed Hikari to the door. Then, he looked down at Seikatsu, who was staring up at him with wide eyes. "Seikatsu, is it?"

Her stomach growled.

Seikatsu pouted up at him, but she allowed herself to be carried to the kitchen. She supposed she'd be seeing a lot more of this 'Kagami', since her mother had trusted him enough to leave her alone with him. She squinted at the side of his face, which looked familiar, as he rummaged through the fridge for something to feed her.

But with the pain gone, Seikatsu just wanted to catch up on sleep, suddenly feeling exhausted.

She blew raspberries with a bored expression. If she were to be alone, she could comfortably fall into her thoughts again. When Kagami withdrew his hand from the fridge, holding strawberry-banana flavored baby food, she almost sighed.

He set her on the kitchen counter, before opening a drawer and going through it for a plastic spoon. Those were used on rare occasions, so he wasn't really sure were to look. Seikatsu decided this after watching him search for 5 minutes.

She made a high-pitched whining noise, and he scowled at her in response.

Turning around, he looked through the drawer opposite to her. And it was with his back turned, that she caught sight of the symbol on his clothes. A fan.

Immediately, she grinned. _He must be a cosplayer._

She looked him from his head to his toes and back, as he turned to face her. _Is he cosplaying _now_? He's kinda old.. Who is he cosplaying as?_

Seikatsu glanced from his hair (_Shisui?_) to his clothes, (_Sasuke?_) to his eyes. _His eyelashes look real.._

He stepped to her, "If you're hungry, you can use your hands." He twisted the top until it popped and took it off.

And just as she was about to dive in, her mother re-entered the house, her footsteps alerting them to her presence. "Seika-chan, I've got something for you!"

She watched with wide, curious eyes as her mother stepped into the kitchen. "Thank you, Kagami-san."

He nodded, "Of course. This is my niece, after all."

Seikatsu looked from one face to the next, wondering what they were saying. She'd only caught 'Thank You'.

"That was quick." He remarked, setting the baby-food onto the counter.

"Was it? I suppose it helps that I live at the front of the compound." She smiled, glancing at him.

Kagami 'hned', watching Seikatsu look around curiously, her wandering eyes stopping at the window.

"You should show her the village." He suggested, lightly ruffling Seikatsu's hair as he passed her to exit the kitchen.

From Florida in the USA, to wherever-she-was in Japan, she hated her hair being messed with recklessly. She scowled, her hands flying to her head. Seeing that expression, Hikari sighed, "You've been with him for less than an hour and you've already caught it, huh?"

Kagami could be heard chuckling as he showed himself to the front door, and out of the house.

Hikari shook her head with a smile. "It can't be helped."

Seikatsu smiled a gummy smile at her mother, watching Hikari open up a cabinet and pull out a plastic spoon. As Hikari was scooping up a spoon of baby-food for Seikatsu to eat, the younger Uchiha looked at the window with genuine curiosity.

It hadn't occurred till just then that she had been in that house for all her life. _Where am I?_

"Maybe I _should_ show you the village.." Hikari mused. "It won't be long before I'm put back on active duty."

Seikatsu hummed in that way that her mother and Kagami liked to do. She didn't know what was being said mostly, and she didn't really care, probably. She was tired and hungry, but the show must go on.

"Open _wide_~."

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**Author's Note: ****Ahahahahaha, another fanfiction! I'm starting to think I write these on impulse, really. So many ideas, so little time. I'm experimenting. ****Ahahaha haha ha.**


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